Laura Loomer, in wild court testimony, says Trump staff told her Lindsey Graham is gay

Laura Loomer outside US Capitol building 2025 Lindsey Graham Attends Trump Rally 2023

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; JurdBurk/Shutterstock

Far-right activist Laura Loomer; U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina

Loomer's deposition comes amid her lawsuit against HBO host Bill Maher.

Jacob Ogles

August 14 2025 10:34 AM EST

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A deposition of right-wing political activist Laura Loomer in her lawsuit against HBO host Bill Maher offered her one more platform to hurl homophobic insults at politicians she hates. That includes figures on the left, like former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, but also Republican figures, including U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Loomer filed a lawsuit against the HBO host, who has his own history ofanti-transgender rhetoric, after he said on theReal Time with Bill Mahershow during the campaign that the influencer might be “f---ing” Trump. In hercourt deposition, which her own attorneys made public in a filing, she said the joke cost her any chance to join the White House staff after Trump’s election in November.

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But Maher's attorney, Katherine Bolger, also raised a number of controversial remarks Loomer has made, including insinuations about Graham’s sexuality. In September, Loomer on the X platformwrote: "When is Lindsey coming out of the closet? We all know you’re gay, Lindsey… and that’s ok."

She went on to write: "There's no reason why Lindsey Graham, South Carolina, needs to hide the fact that he's a gay man. Come on, Lindsey. I like men too. No need to hide. I want you to relieve yourself of your toxic closeted anger. It's 2024. Nobody needs to hide that they're gay anymore."

She defended those remarks to Bolger, who raised the exchange.c

"I called him 'gay,'" she said. "It’s well-known. Several of President Trump's staff have told me in confidence that – that Lindsey Graham is gay."

Further, she said a number of people in Republican circles "told me that they've attended dinners where he's brought male significant individuals with him -- like, significant others."

"I will say that he never denied being gay after I said that," she said.

Bolger stressed she did not ask for Loomer to explain the accusation, and Loomer’s own attorney, Larry Klayman, objected to the topic being further discussed.

Bolger also raised a similar attack by Loomer on Emhoff, Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, this one more focused on his masculinity.

Weeks before the election, Loomer posted, "If you call yourself, 'Second Gentleman,' you're just gay. Men aren't supposed to be second to women. It's called biological hierarchy, and we should respect it. There's a reason why she tells him to 'answer your effing phone.' She has no respect for him because he's lowered himself into being a loser."

Asked if Loomer had any reason to think Emhoff was gay, she clarified she did not mean he was a homosexual.

"'Gay' can mean either homosexual, or it can also just mean, like, you're, like, weak. You know, it's like also used as a term to describe, like, weak men. It is. So it's like a — and I do believe that he's a weak man," Loomer said.

She went on to say Maher would not understand "respect in a relationship" because he hasn't been married, though Loomer also is not married. She said in the deposition that she has had a boyfriend for a year.

The Florida-based Loomer alsodiscussed her ejection from the Pulse trial, where prosecutors unsuccessfully sought a criminal conviction against the wife of dead shooter Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando in 2016. Loomer's press credentials were revoked shortly after she followed the family of Noor Salman into the parking lot after her questions incited a sudden end to a press conference.

But she recalled the event differently.

“I, during the press conference, asked the family members of the terrorists whether or not they condemned jihad. And the family was being represented by CAIR, which is the group that lobbied Twitter to ban me,” she said. “They've been designated as an Islamic terrorist organization in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.”

She went on to further criticize CAIR -- the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a DC-based nonprofit that advocates for Muslim civil rights. She also suggested Salman should not havebeaten the charges.